Xavier High School senior Andrew Waggoner, top, a Dongan Hills resident, clinched a spot in the upcoming Catholic high school state wrestling meet at Buffalo in just his second year on the mats. Along the way, the 182-pounder edged his Xavier teammate and friend Charbel Abi-Hassoun (not shown).Advance File Photo/Derek Alvez

Pardon the interruption while I take a minute to brag a little bit about our oldest son, Andrew.

The Xavier High School senior rugby player took up wrestling last year – a late start by any standards – and last weekend fulfilled a personal goal by qualifying for the upcoming Catholic high school state wrestling meet at Buffalo.

Andrew posted a 4-1 record at last weekend’s CHSAA city competition and needed to win three consecutive do-or-die matches to take the fifth and final state spot at 182 pounds.

Needless to say, it was a big deal in our Dongan Hills household.

The most intriguing part of our story was that Andrew was pitted against Xavier teammate Charbel Abi-Hassoun in the final match for the final state spot, at the end of a long and action-packed day at Monsignor Farrell’s gym.

The two senior wrestlers had developed a fairly serious rivalry at 182 pounds during the course of the season and had split two previous meetings. They are a couple of big, strong guys with a lot of pride in what they do.

Andrew and Charbel would have preferred not going head-to-head with so much at stake, but that was the match-up after both stumbled early and needed to take the long road back into state consideration.

Andrew won an extremely tight and competitive match, 6-4, and the teammates, who had battled each other all season in practice, embraced on the mat afterwards.

When my wife, Judy, asked Andrew how he and Charbel were getting along, he shot her a glance and said:

“Charbel is my brother.’’

That’s the part I want to brag about.

(Jim Waggoner is a Staten Island Advance sports reporter, copy editor and website assistant who entered the newspaper’s 25-year club last spring.)